


had some friends back in the day

by jaggedwolf



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Mentioned Beauregard/Keg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-07-20 23:51:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16148165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaggedwolf/pseuds/jaggedwolf
Summary: The day after they defeat The Iron Shepherds, Caleb wakes up a little earlier and gets an awkward conversation for his troubles.





	had some friends back in the day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wiccy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wiccy/gifts).



Caleb approached the kitchen, guard up even as he recognized the particular clanking of heavy armor from within. The door was slightly ajar. He peered in and let out a sigh of relief at what he saw. 

As predicted, it was merely Keg. A lit cigarette hung from her mouth. She pulled pieces of bread and cheese from the cupboards, giving each one a cursory glance before throwing it in her haversack if it was edible-looking, and throwing it aside with a scowl if it didn’t. 

Smart of her. Traveling alone even within the Empire’s borders meant one rarely knew where their next meal might come from, and Caleb could only imagine it would be far worse here in Shady Creek. How had Keg ended up in Shady Creek? 

Caleb shook the thought off. Curiosity was only useful if the answers it looked for had purpose, and Keg had already served hers. He made as if to turn around. In his estimation it was two hours till midday. The few hours of sleep he had garnered between dawn and now had been insufficient to fully shake off the previous night’s exhaustion. Perhaps that was why control of his own body felt frustratingly clumsy, his attempt to move away from the door instead knocking it further open.

“The fuck?” Keg dropped the piece of bread she was holding on the table. She drew her warhammer and her battleaxe in a single breath, eyeing the open door warily.

Sighing deeply, Caleb walked in with his hands up. “It is only me.”

“What is it with you guys and sneaking up on people?” Keg scowled and dropped her weapons. Caleb winced at the loud thuds they made as they hit the floor. Keg turned her attention back to the piece of bread, squinting at it. “Why the fuck are you up so early? You could probably use the beauty sleep after last night.” 

Caleb wished he had Frumpkin back. Keg did not seem the type to melt around cute animals, even less so than Beauregard and Yasha, but nevertheless it was a good tactic to fall back on. He lowered his hands. “I could ask the same of you.” 

“Lorenzo and the Iron Shepherds are dead. We got your friends out.” Keg cinched her bag closed. She grimaced. “Don’t really fancy staying around here longer than necessary.”

“Even with them dead, their territory unsettles you.”

“Like you didn’t see me fucking lose it after you finished off Lorenzo?” Keg snorted, a bitter sound.

He nodded in acknowledgement. Of course he had. His eyes had been fixated on where the streams of fire met the back of Lorenzo’s head, that head and the rest of his body turning into ash, that ash falling over Keg bracing her weapons against a no longer existing foe, Keg falling to her knees sobbing. His eyes had fallen on her for only a second before the memory of burning his house down drove out all other thoughts and senses, but with his recall, a second was all it took.

“Some shit sticks with you.” Keg frowned at him, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “But you’d know that, you got your shit with fire.”

Caleb froze, all remaining sleepiness struck out of him by Keg’s words. Had Beauregard told her about his past? He had assumed that whatever transpired between them would be nothing more than hormones and adrenaline, not trust shared. Though, Beauregard was young. Caleb remembered when he had been her age and the two concepts had been intertwined beyond his comprehension. Many concepts had been inseparable for him at that age.

Beauregard had always seemed too cynical to ever think like that, but it was not like his story was as precious to her as it was to him. His mind was seized with panic, then resignation at the possibility that Keg knew precisely the kind of monster he was. What did it matter? He was unlikely to cross paths with Keg again. Her opinions would not touch his plans.

Still. If Beauregard had told Keg, Beauregard could tell the others, and he needed to keep that risk in mind. Not that it had ever left his mind, merely pushed aside with recent events. His eyes instinctively flickered up as if he could see past stone and into whichever room Beauregard likely lay asleep in. 

“Caleb?” Keg had come closer while he’d been lost in his thoughts, a bemused expression on her face as she waved her short arm in front of his face. “Didn’t mean to throw you off there.”

Caleb’s gaze slid to her. She continued, “I just meant, I saw you stare at the burning ashes.”

Oh. Then Beauregard had said nothing to her. Good. 

“You are correct,” he said reluctantly. He had not expected Keg to notice his limitations - she had struck him as not particularly bright. 

“Props to you for working with what messes with your mind.” Keg retreated to her dropped weapons, fixing them back on to her armor. “But, uh, I’m much more of a coward so I’ll be leaving now like I said.” 

_You are not the only one who has made the mistake of gifting your loyalty to the wrong people_. The thought came unbidden, but he pushed it aside. Voicing it would help neither of them. She stepped past him to leave before suddenly stopping at the doorway.

“Shit. I don’t know if I can go into your protective bubble thing. Here, take this.” Keg turned and shoved some folded up parchment and a medallion into his hands. Turning it over, he saw the words “To Not” scratched out in barely legible handwriting. Right. Not particularly bright. 

“Just give’em to her, okay?” Keg looked up at him with a fierce look. “The medallion’s for Nott too.”

“Nothing for Beauregard?” Caleb questioned. 

A conflicted look crossed Keg’s face before turning into a smirk. “Yeah, I don’t think you want to hear about what I gave Beau.”

Caleb made a face. He certainly did not. Keg turned back again, a hand on her warhammer and the other on the strap of her bag. “Caleb?”

“Yes?” he asked, a part of him wishing he had stayed asleep.

“Thanks for finishing the fucker off.” Keg stomped out of the kitchen and then out of sight, armor clanging the whole time. Caleb heard another door open, his perfect recall summoning a spider’s eye view of the building’s layout to give him Keg’s path out.

He waited till he heard the outer door slam open and shut before moving, closing the kitchen door behind him as he returned to the others. They were all still fast asleep - Caduceus on his back with his hands eerily crossed across his front, staff in perfect alignment with his body; Fjord on his side with a clenched fist and a troubled look; Yasha in the center of the hut laying perfectly still, scars littered across her arms; Jester on her front with her face squashed against the ground and an arm slung over Nott who was curled into a tiny ball. 

Caleb carefully stepped past everyone to return to his position next to Nott, and placed Keg’s letter (or so he presumed) on Nott’s pile of belongings. He hung the medallion in front of his face, inspecting it as he started the identification ritual. There was what looked to be the letter ‘K’ crudely etched into the back of it. Irrelevant as to the origin of it, certainly. He let a breath out in relief as the ritual came to a close - the medallion was not a danger.

It looked utterly unremarkable, but it would protect Nott.

**Author's Note:**

> Wiccy, thanks for the idea of Keg and Caleb awkwardly locked in a room together - it was lot of fun to think about how those two would interact.


End file.
